The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-26
The Sunday School.
LESSON FOR DECEMBER A. 1887.
BY REV. ROBERT T. POLK.
PARABLE OF THE SOWER.
TIE PARABLE .
Matthew xiii. 1-9.]

t. was Characteristic of JESUS teaching
that he employed familiar facts, experiences
and phenomena to illustrate the truths which
ha tauoht. He frequently spoke in parallels.
A narable ia a figure or discourse in which
trutb is taught by comparison. The truth
70 he taught is like something that is de-
scribed or narrated with more or less OF de-
tail. Tt ia an extended smile; metaphor
wronobt into the form of a story or proverb.
A fable ia a kind of parable, and parable Is
kind of allegory,-a story in which the ap-
parent meaning wells the real meaning which
IL symbolizes. Literally parable Is piac-
inc of one thing beside another, drawing
narallel and making comparison. JESUS
comnares the Jewish teachers to blind guides.
The establishment and progress OF the king
dom of heaven is like the seeding, culture,
growth and harvesting'of fields. The gospels
record about fifty illustrations employed by
Jesus. which may be included in the term
"parable."
The Parable of the Sewer is one of a series
about the growth of seeds. Matthew RECORDS
il as the first of seven which he introduces as
illustrating the conditions of the growth ana
nrooress of the reign of the Messiah, and the
preyiously described results of JESUS minis
trv in Galilee. 1t is contained in a discourse,
spoken from a boat on the Lake of Galilee to
the crowds assembled on the beach. The
discourse is sometimes called, "The Sermon
bv the Sea- The several parallels may have
been spoken at different times, and are
grouped together in accordance with the
-, rnrltn n m
tents of his Gospel. The parable OF the Les
son appears to have been spoken by JESUS
some time after the visit of Johns disciples
To inouire if he we're the Coming One, and
before the shilling of the tempest (see Les
sons November 10 and October 80 1t Illus
trates the progress and results of his minis
try of the gospel of the kingdom. He had
instructed his disciples in the nature and
principles of the reign of GoD which he came
to establish. He had preached and wrought
mighty works [miracles] in most of the cities
and towns of Galilee. Crowds were attracted
to his ministry. The common people heard
him gladly, but the Jewish rulers and relig-
ious teachers opposed his ministry and sought
to silence him, his own family apparently
sympathizing with their opposition mark
iii. 81, 34). "Seeing they see not, and hear
ing they hear not' (13). They saw the mar
yelous works, but would not acknowledge
their significance; and heard his gracious
words which they would not understand, but
perverted their meaning. Because of these
circumstances, he declared to his disciples,
he employed parallels in his public teaching
The disciples we're prepared to accept his
direct teaching, while his opposers were dis
posed to reject and denounce is; and so he
wells the truth he would teach in familiar and
suggestive story and symbol for their sakes.
Evidently JESUS did not veil the truth he de-
clared in parallels and other illustrative
forms, to conceal it, but to reveal it to those
who were not inclined to receive it. He en-
ployed illustrations and striking figures of
speech as wise and effective methods of i'm
parting divine truth to unwilling minds. The
Model Teacher did not use his illustrations
merely to attract or please, but to instruct.
JESUS drew his illustrations from familiar
souroes,-the common employments, expe-
riences and observations of thepeople among
whom he taught. The plain of Gennesaret
was fertile region, and agricultural scenes
were of common observation. The people
lived in cities aud villages from which they
went forth to cultivate their fields and farms.
The Parable of the Sewer describes Cali
lean farmer and the results of his husbaudry:
"The sower went out to SOW, and in scatter
ing the seed some fell on the path which bor-
dered or ran through the fields, and were
trodden under the feet of travellers, or de-
youred by birds; others fell on ledgy ground,
where the soil was shallow, and quickly
sprang up, but from lack of root and depth
of soil withered and died under the summers
sun; others fell where thorny weeds or this
ties grew, which sprang up and choked them,
preventing their mature growth; and others
fell on good soil, well prepared, deep and
clear of weeds, but of varying quality, and
yielded a harvest of thirty, sixty and hun
dred fold"
Is there anything on the spot to suggest the
images thus conveyed? SO asked as | rode
along the track under the hillside by which
the plain of Geune saret is approached. :.
The thought had hardly occurred to me, when
a slight recess in the hillside, close upon the
plain, disclosed at once, in detail, and with
conjunction which remember nowhere else
in Palestine every feature OF the great para
BILE. There was the undulatlng cornheld de-
scending to the waters edge. There was the
trodden pathway running through the midst
of it, with the fence or hedge to prevent the
seed from falling here and there on either
side of it, or upon it; itself hard with the
constant tramp of horse and mule aud hu-
man foot. There was the ''good" rich soil,
which distinguishes the whole of that plain
and its neighborhood from the bare hills
elsewhere descending into the lake, aud
which, where there is no interruption, pro-
duces one vast mass of corn. There was the
rocky ground of the hillside protrnding here
and there through the cornfelds, as else
where through the grassy slopes. There we're
the large bushes of thorn-the "Nabk," that
kind of which tradition says that the Grown
of Thorns was woven.--springing up like the
fruit-trees of the more inland parts, in the
very mid-t of the waving wheat.-Stanley,
"Sinai aud Palestine"
In country like Galilee, no illustration
could be more easily ineligible, aud il is no
wonder that JESUS uses it. As he sat in the
boat with the multitude standing on the shore,
each feature OF the parable wo1ld be before
him,-the sower going out from the neigh
boring town or village to SOW his patch on
the unencos ed hillside, with its varied soil;
here warm and deep, there a mere skin over
the lines rock; invaded at some spots
by thorns, then, as now, so plentiful in Pal
estine. and crossed by the bride path, along
which men and beasts were passing constant
ly. The seed was good, and the sower faith
fully did his work. but it depended on the
soil itself, what would be the result, for the
rain, and the light, and the heat came equally
on all. Part fell on the trodden path,-which
itself, though now beaten hard, was once as
soft and yielding as any part OF the field
4 i "f..k 81,